Traditional Wisdom from Remote Village

A village is in the edge of Mahakam river, in the remote Borneo, Indonesia. In the Muara Wis village, Kutai Kertanegara district, East Kalimantan Province, Mr Basri, a breeder whose hundreds buffalos, was stand on his own stable on side of the river. Meanwhile his own buffalos were found grasses in the swamp about three kilometers from the place where he stand out. Basri saw them happily.

Basri, 50 years old, was chairperson of a buffalos breeders group with 17 members. In the afternoon on February 2006, I met him when we had traveled by a speedboat to remote Borneo. He told me about his live as a buffalos breeder. He said me that since many years ago Basri and his members has been breed buffalos in 17 kilometers square wide swamp. They called the buffalos as “kerbau kalang” (swamp buffalos). According to Mr Basri, swamp buffalos stronger and more resistant from any disease than another kind of buffalos.

This is an unique way for breeding buffalos. In the rainy, when water flow rapidly from Mahakam river to buffalos husbandry that caused flood, Basri and his friends drive away their buffalos to the stable by traditional boat. In the dry, when water decrease, they release their buffalos from the stable to the swamp.

The way of breed above is one of the many kind of traditional wisdom we found in the Indonesia villages. There are another traditional wisdom, especially from indigenous people in order to managed natural resources and preserve environment. For example, in Cikondang, a small village about 40 kilometers northwestern Bandung, West Java province capital, we can find the custom for preserve forest around the village. For most 300 years the villagers have been kept and preserved the forbidden forest in Tilu Mountain around the village with traditional wisdom like ritual ceremony. They held the ritual ceremony each year. In that event, head of kampong has always been remember the villagers for keep the forest and environment. "Obeying to all the rules and adhering to the custom, the people village escaped from natural disaster," Samsa, head of kampong, said to Kompas-Jakarta based daily newspaper.

(Source: my reporting in Kutai Kartanegara district, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, on February 2006, and Kompas Jakarta-based daily newspaper)